Happy 40th Anniversary, Urban Fellows!

http://cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/12/celebratin-40-years-of-urban-fellows/

Celebrating 40 Years of Urban Fellows
By Sewell Chan

The Urban Fellows Program, begun in 1969, is celebrating its 40th anniversary.
The idea was fairly simple: Take a group of bright and energetic recent college graduates, assign them to work with high-level New York City officials, and expose them to the joys (and frustrations) of municipal government. The year was 1969, and idealism about public service was in the air, when an assistant city administrator, Sigmund G. Ginsburg, part of a team of young aides to Mayor John V. Lindsay, invented the Urban Fellows program.
This evening, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg, the sixth mayor to make use of the fellows, will honor the 40th anniversary of the program in a reception at Gracie Mansion.

Some 900 Urban Fellows — about 25 a year — have passed through the program. Applicants must have graduated from college within two years of the start of the fellowship, which runs from September to May. Many Urban Fellows end up staying in, or returning to, city government. Among the alumni who now serve in the Bloomberg administration are Linda I. Gibbs, deputy mayor for health and human services (class of 1985-86); Robert W. Walsh, commissioner of the Department of Small Business Services (class of 1981-82); and Jeanne B. Mullgrav, commissioner of the Department of Youth and Community Development (class of 1984-85).

City Room asked several former Urban Fellows to reminisce on the program and what it meant for them. Descriptions of their accomplishments, and excerpts from their responses, follow.